"We have a program that will build affordable units," said the association's president and chief executive officer, Borre Winckel.

Planning Commission members and building industry representatives worked out a series of incentives that would allow developers to build larger market-rate projects if they include affordable housing units within the projects or make provisions for providing affordable housing at other locations.

That could include donating land to be used for affordable housing, partnering with nonprofit builders or developers that specialize in lower cost housing or helping to underwrite the costs of affordable housing projects someone else is building.

Incentives the city would offer include allowing developers to build taller buildings, provide fewer parking spaces and pay impact fees in installments over several years rather than requiring a lump sum payment.

To increase the number of housing units they could build on their property, developers also could opt to pay impact fees that would be several times higher than they would otherwise have to pay. That money could be set aside to offset the cost of affordable housing units.

Rosales said planners will refine the proposals hashed out at the workshop and return to the commission later with a detailed plan for the commission to recommend to the City Council for adoption.

To be designated affordable, housing must be priced so that a family of four earning $48,180 or less will spend no more than 30 percent of their income on rent or mortgage payments.

Senior city planner Russ Cunningham said 40 percent of Oceanside households have annual incomes at that level.

Countywide, Cunningham said 37 percent of households spend more than half of their income on rent or mortgage payments.

Although there was general agreement on the affordable housing proposals coming out of the workshop, some commissioners said they'd prefer affordable housing projects to be built along transit corridors such as Coast Highway, Oceanside Boulevard and Mission Avenue.

"I'm not really thrilled about suburban development for affordable housing," said Commissioner Claudia Troisi.

Commission Dennis Martinek said the city should make it a formal requirement that projects with increased density could only be built along transit corridors.

Jim Schmid, chief executive officer of
Chelsea Investment Corp,
urged flexibility. He said higher density complexes would naturally go along transit corridors but adopting formal restrictions could drive up the cost of the projects.